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Norwegian Tibet Committee invites to a seminar and debate organised by Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation dedicated to protests in Tibet.

Norwegian PEN, the world’s largest writers and free expression organisation, has awarded this year’s Ossietzky prize to Norwegian-Pakistani singer, music producer, composer, film maker and human rights activist Deeyah.

Two more Tibetans have died after reportedly setting themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule, a rights group said, on the same day that the Communist Party unveiled its new generation of leaders. The incidents on 15 November would bring the total number Tibetan self-immolations to 12 in the last ten days, since the run-up to the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has issued recommendations to the Togo state urging it to ensure that land contracts with foreign companies do not result in forced eviction, internal displacement, or the increased food insecurity of women and girls.

Norwegian Helsinki Committee is concerned with the reports that a conference aiming at discussing freedom of the internet allows restrictions on contributions from civil society – input that would contribute to a more open and relevant discussion, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

On 2 April 1997, while covering a protest against the proposed reunification of Belarus with Russia, a Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip witnessed her father, a documentary filmmaker, get beaten unconscious. She herself was clubbed by riot police. That incident only galvanized her to continue to expose corruption in Belarus, especially as a journalist for the Minsk bureau of the investigative paper Novaya Gazeta (the paper of slain reporter Anna Politkovskaya).

On 15th November 2012 Norwegian PEN will mark the Day of the Imprisoned Writer.

While the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women welcomes legislative improvements and Turkmenistan’s submission of its country report, it also notes that it is “seriously concerned about attitudes and policies reinforcing discriminatory traditional norms, harmful practices, patriarchal attitudes and deep-rooted stereotypes”.

Recently Norwegian Minister of Development Erik Solheim announced that Norway will make an assessment of the legitimacy of developing countries’ debt to Norway. This means that the government will be the first ever to carry out a creditor’s debt audit.